The present invention relates to a hair roller device which is used for hair curling and the like.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a hair roller device which in combination with a plurality of different diameter heat-conductive smooth rollers may perform both the function of a curling iron and a hair setter device. The conductive or metal rollers are heated and/or dispensed such as in a heating chamber through conduction, radiation or the like. Examples are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,948,417 and 3,454,318. The hair roller device is utilized to engage and manipulate the heated rollers in a safe manner and allow the curling handle to be used with the metal roller as a curling iron or allow the roller to be left in the hair by use of an associated non-conductive clamp, bobbie pin, or the like. Examples of suitable clamps are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 429,984 and German OLS No. 1,457,386. Typically, curling appliances were either of the curling iron or hair setting variety. The trend of such appliances has gravitated toward electrically heated curling irons on the one hand and insulated or non-conductive rollers on the other.
Electrically heated curling irons which were used in combination with conductive rollers, such as depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 3,291,141, were only usable as a curling iron and required relatively exacting tolerances and a set of conductive teeth and a split roller combination to insure proper heating of the conductive rollers by the conductive rod portion of the electrically heated curling iron.
Devices such as depicted in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,413,984 and 3,426,766 were capable of engaging rollers of different diameter but were designed primarily for non-conductive rollers and were most complex. For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,426,766 required the manipulation of a washer to adjust the deformation of a plurality of flexible staves. Such an arrangement could readily result in an insufficient force to retain the roller in the roller down position. When a hot roller is being manipulated, too great a force on the roller would render it too difficult to operate effectively as a hair setter, i.e. leaving the roller in the hair, and too little force may result in the hot roller falling off the hair roller device and possibly causing an injury such as a burn to the user of the device.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,413,984, in its modified form embodiment of FIG. 4, utilizes a two tine arrangement of resilient material to wedge into an associated roller. This construction may cause an orientation problem in securing the roller with its resulting uneven or improper curl and also require too great a force, especially with respect to the smallest diameter roller when the roller is removed and left in the hair. Both U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,426,766 and 3,413,984 devices could not be used with hot, heat conductive rollers without a danger that the user burn him or herself especially during the initial retaining of the roller on the hair roller device.
Briefly stated and according to an embodiment of this invention, the problems with prior art devices have been overcome by the practice of this invention which includes a non-electric non-conductive hair roller device including a normally biased clip member for frictionally holding a roller on the hair roller device and at least one compressible support leg pivotably mounted on the roller device which is of a height in combination with the rod, greater than the inside diameter of any utilized roller to provide sufficient retaining of the roller even when the clip member is released from the roller.